Tetradraw
ANSI Art Editor
© Copyleft 2000 John McCutchan
Design By John McCutchan
Programming By John McCutchan
+-- Table Of Contents
(1.0) What is Tetradraw
(1.1) System Requirments
(1.2) License
(2.0) Installation
(2.1) Source code installation
(2.2) Binary installation
(2.3) Files contained in the archive
(3.0) Running Tetradraw
(3.1) The editor
(3.2) The Statusbar
(3.3) Attribute Changing
(3.4) Multidraw
(3.5) Block command
(3.6) Saving an image
(3.7) Loading an image
(3.8) Misc commands
(4.0) Contact
(4.1) Bugs
+-- (1.0) What
is Tetradraw
Tetradraw is a full featured ANSI art editor for *nix operating systems.
ANSI art is an art made only of the ASCII characters and coloured with
16 colours. ANSI arts main use is in text mode interfaces. Tetradraw
is the first completly usable ANSI art editor for *nix operating systems.
However Tetradraw does not only emulate the ansi editors for DOS. Tetradraw
is a revolution in the way ANSI art can be drawn, for the first time ever two
artists can draw together over the internet on the exact same image (MultiDraw).
This has been a long awaited feature and should provide a new level of art.
On top of the ground breaking MultiDraw here are some of Tetradraw's features:
+-- (1.1) System Requirments
A Unix System (Has been tested on Linux) A Console capable of text colour graphics.
Ncurses 5.0 gcc or compatable ANSI C compiler.
+-- (1.2) License
Tetradraw and all of its source code is licensed under the GPL. The artwork
is owned by the artists. A copy of the GPL
should be included in the distribution with the filename COPYING.
+-- (2.0) Installation
There are two different installations that you can do depending on the format
you download tetradraw in.
+-- (2.1) Installation from souce code:
If you download the source tarball then you will follow these instructions.
You should recieve tetradraw in the form of tetradraw-version.tar.gz where version
is the numerical version code of the copy you recieved.
Steps to install:
bash$ tar zxvf tetradraw-version.tar.gz
bash$ cd tetradraw-version
bash$ make
You can then copy the tetradraw and tetraview binaries from the src directory
to wherever you would like to use them.
Or you can do this and install them globally on your system:
bash$ su
bash# make install
bash# exit
bash$
+-- (2.2) Binary Installation
If you recieved tetradraw as a binary you should follow these insructions.
You should have recieved 2 gzipped files
tetradraw-version.gz
and
tetraview-version.gz
where version is the numerical version code of the copy you recieved.
Steps to install:
bash$ gunzip tetradraw-version.gz
bash$ gunzip tetraview-version.gz
bash$ chmod a+x tetradraw-version
bash$ chmod a+x tetraview-version
bash$ mv tetradraw-version tetradraw
bash$ mv tetraview-version tetraview
You can then optionally move the binaries to the directory you wish to install
them in.
+-- (2.3) Files contained in the archive
Changes : The Changelog.
AUTHORS : Contains a list of the authors.
README : A brief bit of information on tetradraw.
TODO : To Do list.
BUGS : Where to report bugs.
Makefile : The Makefile for tetradraw.
art/ : Contains all of the art used in tetradraw.
docs/ : Contains documentation for tetradraw
specs/ : Contains specifications on the file formats that Tetradraw is compatable
with.
src/ : Contains the source code.
+-- (3.0) Running
Tetradraw
If tetradraw is in your path, you can type:
bash$ tetradraw
If tetradraw is not in your path, you can type:
bash$ /path/to/tetradraw
The commands are the same for running tetraview, except replace "tetradraw"
with "tetraview".
+-- (3.1) The Editor
The editor consists of a 80x24 viewable area.
The following keys wil allow you to maneuver through the viewable canvas :
Arrow Keys : These keys allow you to move the cursor to different positions
around the viewable screen.
Page Up/Page Down : These two keys will scroll up or down by a screen at a time.
BackSpace : Moves left one column and places a space in that column.
Insert : This key toggles character insert mode.
Delete : This key deletes the character under the cursor and moves the rest
of the over one to the left.
Home : This key will take you to the first column of the current line.
End : This key will take you to the last column on the current line.
Tab : This key will move the cursor 8 columns to the right.
Alt+Tab : This key will move the cursor 8 columns to the left.
F1-F10 : These keys will place a special character from your currently selected
character set.
ALT+1 to 0 : Switch your character set.
F11 : Toggle primary character set.
F12 : Toggle secondary character set.
ALT+C : Clear the current canvas.
You can use any of the alphanumeric keys on the keyboard to add a character
to the canvas at your current cursor location. Special ASCII codes can be entered
by holding down the ALT key, typing the ASCII code in they keypad and then releasing
the ALT key.
+-- (3.2) The Status Bar:
(00,0000) i[oFF] cLR cs[00] 1=A2=B3=C4=D5=E6=F7=G8=H9=I0=J [ ] ( , )
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
[1]: Current X location.
[2]: Current Y location.
[3]: Insert mode on or off.
[4]: The current colour attribute.
[5]: The current character set.
[6]: The characters in the character set.
[7]: The remote users handle. If you are not connected nothing is displayed.
[8]: Arrows guiding you to the remote users cursor. if your are not connected
nothing is displayed.
+-- (3.3) Attribute Changing
ESC ESC : This activates the quick palette where you can quickly change the
the colours. You use the left and right arrow keys to change the foreground
colour and the up and down keys to change the background colour.
ALT+A : This will bring up a new menu where all the colours are displayed, you
must enter the foreground and the background colour in numerical input.
ALT+F : Toggles the blinking attribute.
ALT+P : Picks up the attribute under the cursor.
+-- (3.4) Multidraw
Multidraw is Tetradraws premiere feature, for the first time ever you can draw
ANSI with your friends over the internet. Multidraw is very easy to use, one
person acts as a server and picks a port (Note: the port must be above 1024)
and the other person acts as the client and connects to the servers ip adddress
/ hostname on the specified port.
Note: Each person must have a cleared canvas before connecting.
ALT+M : This key brings up the Multidraw connect screen if you are not
yet connected. If you already are connected it brings up the chat screen.
+-- (3.5) Block Command
ALT+B : This key activates the block command.
Howto use the block command:
You must first select a area by using the movement keys from the editor.
You can do various block commands on your select block area.
Copy : This will copy the block area onto the clipboard.
Press c to do this.
Move : This will cut the block area onto the clipboard.
Press m to do this.
After you have either cut or copied a block area
onto the clipboard you can then do the following:
Stamp : This will paste the clipboard onto the current
canvas.
Press s to do this.
Flip X: This will flip the clipboard on the X axis.
Press x to do this.
Flip Y: This will flip the clipboard on the Y axis.
Press y to do this.
Raise : This will raise the clipboard above the canvas.
Press r to do this.
Lower : This will lower the clipboard below the canvas.
Press l to do this.
Erase : This will erase the block area.
Press e to do this.
Fill : This will allow you to fill the foreground colour, background colour
or a character in the block area.
Press f to do this.
Replace : This will allow you to replace a foreground colour, background colour
or a character in the block area.
Press r to do this.
+-- (3.6) Saving an image
ALT+S : This key brings up the file selector widget. You can use the up and
down arrow keys aswell as the Page up and Page down keys to scroll the file
list.
To save a file you can press enter on the selected file name in the menu or
you can type in the filename yourself.
After you select a file to save you will be prompted to select the file format.
The file formats are:
Ansi : Press the a key to select this type.
Ascii : Press the i key to select this type.
C header : Press the h key to select this type.
Binary : Press the b key to select this type.
If you are saving the image as an ansi you will be prompted to dicide if you
want the screen to clear when viewing
this ansi. What this does is put a clear the screen ansi code at the begining
of the ansi.
You will also be prompted if you want to save a SAUCE record with this ansi.
A SAUCE record is a way to tag your artwork so that people know who drew the
art.
+-- (3.7) Loading an image
ALT+L : This key brings up the file selector widget. You can use the up and
down arrow keys aswell as the Page up and Page down keys to scroll the file
list.
To load a file you can press enter on the selected file name in the menu or
you can type in the filename yourself.
+-- (3.8) Misc commands
ALT+O : Brings up the options menu you navigate the menu with the Up and Down
arrow keys to modify a option press enter on it. To save these options you press
ALT+S.
The Options:
Status bar on top:
This toggles the status bar being displayed on the top of the screen or on the
bottom.
Enable flip fixing:
When using the block command and flipping on the X and Y axis, certain ASCII
characters have a logical opposite and the flipped image would look much closer
to the original image if we replace all characters with their logical opposites.
Show dot files:
This option toggles displaying of filenames that begin with a '.' in the file
selector.
Show logo:
Toggles displaying of the start logo.
Default characterset:
Sets the default character set for a new page. Value must be between 0 and 19
inclusive.
Auto save time:
Number of seconds before tetradraw automatically saves a backup of your art.
The autosave file is located at ~/.tetradraw-autosave.ans
Software cursor:
Toggles between the hardware cursor, and the software cursor. The software cursor
may be more suitable for use over a telnet session.
ALT+Z : Colours the character under the cursor with your current Attribute.
ALT+X : This key will exit tetradraw. Tetradraw will prompt you save your art
if it has been modified since you last saved your art.
ALT+T : This key will toggle the statusbar on top or bottom.
ALT+H : This key will bring up a basic help menu.
ESC ESC : This is the standard exit key to leave any menu in tetradraw.
+-- (4.0) Contact/Support
Comments, bug reports, suggestions, etc may be forwared to the author of tetradraw
via email:
ttb@tentacle.dhs.org
+-- (4.1) Bugs
Although many people have tested tetradraw and it is believed to be
bug free. I can not gaurantee that tetradraw is bug free, so if you find
any bugs PLEASE report them to me at my email address above.